Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation

The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, according to The Bradley Foundation 1998 Annual Report, was giving away more than $30 million per year.

Harry was one of the original charter members of the far right-wing John Birch Society, along with another Birch Society board member, Fred Koch, the father of Koch Industries billionaire brothers and owners, Charles and David Koch.

According to the Media Transparency web site, the Foundation's "resources, its clear political agenda, and its extensive national network of contacts and collaborators in political, academic and media circles has allowed it to exert an important influence on key issues of public policy. While its targets range from affirmative action to social security, it has seen its greatest successes in the areas of welfare 'reform' and attempts to privatize public education through the promotion of school vouchers...

"The overall objective of the Bradley Foundation, however, is to return the U.S. -- and the world -- to the days before governments began to regulate Big Business, before corporations were forced to make concessions to an organized labor force. In other words, laissez-faire capitalism: capitalism with the gloves off.

"To further this objective, Bradley supports the organizations and individuals that promote the deregulation of business, the rollback of virtually all social welfare programs, and the privatization of government services. As a result, the list of Bradley grant recipients reads like a Who's Who of the U.S. Right ... Heritage Foundation ... Madison Center for Educational Affairs ... American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, literary home for such racist authors as Charles Murray (The Bell Curve) and Dinesh D'Souza (The End of Racism), former conservative officeholders Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Jack Kemp and William J. Bennett, and arch-conservative jurists Robert H. Bork and Antonin Scalia...

"Other Bradley grantees include ... Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace; and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation" ... Potomac Foundation, the MacIver Institute and Encounter Books.

Board of Directors (2005)

 * Thomas L. Rhodes – Chairman
 * Reed Coleman – Vice Chairman
 * Michael W. Grebe, President & CEO, formerly served as controversial Governor Scott Walker's campaign chair and and on his transition team after he was elected i 2010, and was also state GOP chairman in the late 1980s.
 * William L. Armstrong
 * Terry Considine
 * Pierre S. du Pont
 * Thomas L. Smallwood
 * Brother Bob Smith
 * David V. Uihlein, Jr.

Officers

 * Thomas L. Rhodes – – Chairman
 * Reed Coleman – Vice Chairman
 * Michael W. Grebe – President & CEO
 * Daniel P. Schmidt – VP for Program
 * Thomas L. Smallwood – Secretary
 * Cynthia K. Friauf – VP for Finance, Treasurer & Assistant Secretary
 * R. Michael Lempke – VP for Investments
 * Terri L. Famer – Assistant Secretary

Former staff

 * Michael Joyce

Contact
The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation P.O. Box 510860 Milwaukee, WI 53203-0153 Phone: 414 291-9915 Fax: 414 291-9991 Web: http://www.bradleyfdn.org

Other SourceWatch Sources

 * funders
 * neo-conservative
 * think tanks